Jim Wallis (Sojourner's Net) is maintaining a blog at Beliefnet. There's a pretty good explanation of the meaning behind Rev. Wright's words and the style employed. From the entry:

This was very hard to take. I confess: nearly everything I read that semester pained and angered me. But four months of listening to voices that I wanted to reject made me different. I began to hear the power of the critique. I came to appreciate the prophetic nature of black preaching. I recognized that these voices emerged from a very distinct historical experience. And I admired the narrative interplay between the Bible and social justice. Over time, they taught me to hear the Gospel from an angular perspective—the angle of slaves, freed blacks, of those who feared lynching, of those who longed for Africa, those who could not attend good schools. From them, I learned that liberation through Jesus was a powerful thing. And that white Americans really did need to repent when it came to race.

Learning to listen was not easy. It took patience, historical imagination, and lots of complaining to my friends—even my African-American ones. Eventually, I figured out that even if your ancestors had been the oppressors, you can enter into the world of those who had been oppressed with generosity and a heart open to transformation.

As MSNBC, CNN, and FOX endlessly play the tape of Rev. Wright's "radical" sermons today, I do not hear the words of a "dangerous" preacher (at least any more dangerous than any preacher who takes the Gospel seriously!) No, I hear the long tradition that Jeremiah Wright has inherited from his ancestors. I hear prophetic critique. I hear Frederick Douglass. And, mostly, I hear the Gospel slant—I hear it from an angle that is not natural to me. It is good to hear that slant. "

The whole entry is worth a read: God's Politics - Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values

OOOOOOOKAY, while it's true that I do not know what it's like to to be a black American--ummm, most of the "modern" black citizens have no idea what slavery really is or what it's like to "long" for Africa, fear lynching, etc. That's just the biggest bunch of hooey I have ever heard--and it's playing the race card in the worst possible way. I don't buy for a minute that it's just an "inherited" way of preaching! I grew up in the South--I've heard black preachers speak --while they speak with the same kind of intensity and passion, they did not preach such hateful concepts. Growing up in the South, I heard a lot of Southern Baptist preachers, Pentacostals, Holiness, etc. who are some of the most demonstrative and passionate speakers (black or white doesn't matter)--they would not begin to dream to say the things Rev. Wright said. To excuse the content of Rev. Wright's sermon as "oh, it's just the way he was raised to preach, white people wouldn't understand. After all they don't know what it's like to be black," is a cop out.

My heritage includes Native American blood(Cherokee to be exact). I could very well play that card of just how badly the white man treated my ancestors! I mean, come on....the US Govt not only took our land, but forced us to march across country to some god forsaken reservation, supplied us w/ blankets infected w/ smallpox, took our children-cut their hair, took their given names, and stripped them of their heritage and history. Even now, the US Govt CONTINUES to cut spending on Indian Health Services, takes back more and more of the "Rez" land that they gave us....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I don't believe that you read the entire article. The author received her degree from Duke. Duke is located in Durham, NC and, the last time I was there, was 80% black. The words that Wright has used that people are so incensed about do have a tradition.

Treatment of the Native Americans was genocide. Entire tribes were wiped off the face of the Earth. Even Lincoln ordered assaults. The treatment you speak of happening to Native Americans is similar to what happened to blacks. I do understand the term "Indian giver."

It wasn't right and it certainly isn't fair. It's not like discrimination has disappeared and doesn't exist. I understand the anger.

We will have to agree to disagree....

I believe the argument that we should look at this sermon as a "traditional" sermon, and that it's all because of the years and years of "anger" is a cop out. In my opinion it's that kind of justification and tradition that continues to feed the racial divide!



Maybe, when the angry blacks get the chip off of their shoulder the nation can build a bridge across the racial divide! I have seen far too many people of color who want to blame their lives of today on what happened 200 years ago.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

The way Wright preaches has a name
"black liberation theology" a google search brings up alot of sites of interest. This article does bring out "some" interesting points.

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